I feel the need to say thank you! (Fitness Support and Success)

[Ambient]

Some of you may remember, 3 years or so ago, several of us chatted and came together to work on being better and doing better when it comes to working out.
While I've had a bunch of ups and downs, the initial motivation I got here from several of you really kept me going when I wanted to give up and not make a difference.
Since that time, I've made some huge life changes and kept going, even through the slumps. I went from barely being able to run a 5k when we started our convos here, to running a half marathon just after Thanksgiving last year.
And Sunday, you won't believe this... Sunday I did a triathlon. A FREAKING TRIATHLON! (Turns out I still can't swim, but that's okay! I'll get better)

So, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you this wonderful community. You may not know it, but everything you have said and done for this journey for me, has made me so much better than I have ever been, and I look forward to continuing to improve myself.

(Next half marathon is the 26th, goal of 2 hours and 30 min this time!)

[I_royalty_I]

Good lord that’s a heck of a lot of progress, congrats! A tri is no joke! From barely doing a 5k to that is very impressive. Do you have aspirations to knock a full marathon off your list?

I’m working on this myself. We set up a home gym in our garage but currently it’s a spot to collect all of our baby gear. Planning to clean it out a bit this weekend and get back into putting it to good use. I have a rower I got on prime day this summer that I still haven’t used. Got a new Apple Watch to encourage me even more, but I haven’t put it to good use yet. Getting started and back into the swing of things is always the most difficult part. Keep up the good work over there!

[kittyray]

Congratulations, that's awesome! That kind of progress is incredible! I'd love to be able to do a triathlon one day, that's so impressive!

[Styx]

Congratulations! That's such an incredible achievement! Good luck on the next marathon!

[♥ Shinx ♥]

Congrats! That's so cool! I love how supportive and friendly this community is, its such a delight to see people succeeding!

[Unown]

Whoa that's amazing!

I've gone through multiple bouts of motivation to exercise and get fit over my years of living (most of the time due to a girl I was interested in lol) but I've never gone to the point of surpassing an athletic goal, just a weight/appearance goal.

It's really great to hear about how you went from barely hitting 5km to being able to complete a triathlon. I hope to one day read a story about you either in an online article or newspaper!!

[Ambient]

It was only a sprint triathlon! So 400m swim, 12-mile bike then 3-mile run. I don't think I'll ever do a full Olympic. That is terrifying.
Setting up the home gym, was the best thing I ever did, because it took away the biggest struggle, I had with going to the gym, making myself go. So now I just get dressed in workout clothes and tell myself to take the steps to the garage, even if I don't want to. I even start out sometimes completely half assing the workout when I'm not in the mood, but somewhere along the way, the switch flips and by the end I'm giving 100%. I definitely support you getting in there and picking it up, even if its just 15-20 min at a time at first. It's all something!
My apple watch is set on the home screen being all my fitness stuff and a few friends share their workout stuff with me, so when I'm being lazy, and my friends are all hitting goals I feel bad and move!
As far as a full marathon... I don't know. I'm in my mid-thirties and just the half is pretty hard on the hips by the end. I'm scared my legs might fall off if I attempted much further. But I'm not going to say never, who knows what could happen! If anyone told me at the beginning of 2020 that I would be a runner, I would have laughed for hours.
Getting back into the swing of things, my advice as someone who started over and over several times, is just do it. Don't think too hard about the plans and the dates and the goals, because then the overwhelming stuff takes over. Just walk over to that fancy new rowing machine and row, even if you have no goals at all. It will feel amazing. (I mean it will feel kind of horrible. But then amazing!)


Oh and honestly, I started doing way better with working out once I just started deciding I wanted to do things. Let me try and see if I can hit this distance or do this activity. Once I stopped using the mirror and scale to tell me if I was succeeding, it got soooo much better.

[H3nry]

Congrats and well done!

I've picked a few 5k and 10ks that I want to try and do next year, i specifically entered races with medals cause I like shiny things LOL

Hopefully I will have my own testimony at the end of 2024